Ukraine firing U.S.-made, long-range missiles, Russia claims

Update, 11:40 a.m.:

Ukrainian forces on Tuesday used six U.S.-supplied long-range ballistic missiles to hit targets inside Russia, the Kremlin said. Russian missile defenses shot down all six missiles and no casualties or damage resulted from the strikes, the Kremlin said. Shards from one of the downed missiles did cause a fire at a Russian military facility, but soldiers quickly put it out, Russian authorities said in a statement on social media.

The report of the attack came a few hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin told the world Russia was changing its doctrine governing its use of nuclear weapons. In the policy change, the Kremlin said it could respond with nuclear weapons to any attack by a non-nuclear power if the attack was carried out with the assistance of a nuclear power.

Does this attack fit that criteria? The ATACMS-type ballistic missiles Kyiv used in the strikes were the kind of missiles that the Kremlin in recent days urged the White House not to let Ukraine fire into Russia, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based nonprofit.

Russian President Vladimir Putin Associated Press / Photo by Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo

Initial post, 10:30 a.m.:

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday changed the country’s policy, increasing the number of possible scenarios in which it could use its nuclear weapons. A nuclear response by Russia would be warranted by a non-nuclear state’s attack against Russia, if the initial attack was supported by a nuclear state, according to the new policy. Furthermore, any attack against Russia or one of its allies by a country that is a member of a military bloc or alliance would be considered an attack by the entire alliance, according to the Kremlin’s new position. Putin’s administration clarified that it viewed nuclear weapons as a deterrence measure and an extreme last-resort response to aggression.

What does this mean? The Kremlin views nuclear weapons as a legitimate response to a Ukrainian attack inside its borders that the United States helped Kyiv carry out. The publication of Putin’s revised military doctrine follows widespread media reports over the weekend that U.S. President Joe Biden gave Ukrainian forces permission to use American-supplied, long-range missiles against targets inside Russia. But a U.S. State Department spokesman on Monday declined to comment on, or confirm, those reports.

Putin claimed in September that Ukraine could not effectively use long-range missiles supplied by the United States without using NATO-controlled satellite targeting systems. So, if Ukraine started striking targets inside Russia with those long-range missiles, it would mean NATO was assisting it in carrying out the strikes, Putin claimed at that time.

Have any NATO members responded? German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock on Tuesday told reporters that her country would not be intimidated by Russia’s new nuclear deterrent policy, and said Putin of playing to people’s fears.

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Sift about how U.S. officials are hesitant to officially confirm any policy change regarding Kyiv’s use of long-range missiles.